Donkey Kong Country, the new themed land at Universal Studios Japan, opens December 11, 2024. This new area of the park features interactive games, meet and greet with Donkey Kong himself, food and merchandise, and of course, a roller coaster.
Mine Cart Madness, based on the mine cart levels from the Donkey Kong Country games, is a world’s first roller coaster, that puts riders in the same carts that Donkey and Diddy Kong rode in those games, in a layout around the land.
The catch of the ride is that the rails seem to be broken, so the cart seems to “jump” over them, as in the games. In reality, the ride vehicle is attached to a different rail beneath the “fake track”, which is what gives this illusion, never before tried on a roller coaster.
Even if the land doesn’t officially open until next week, some early visitors have already tested the ride. And today we have the first non-official POV video of the ride, captured by dxnn91 on YouTube.
What do you think of Mine Cart Madness? As a roller coaster, it is clearly on the shorter and slower side, but the lack of thrills was expected, and the theming and immersion, including animatronic figures of Donkey, Diddy, Dixie and the Tikis or the on-board music make up for that, despite the low quality of the video.
And sadly, no Kremlins, this is based on Retro Studios’ Donkey Kong Country Returns, which is being re-released for Nintendo Switch in January. If you don’t want to make the trip to Japan, this Donkey Kong ride will also be an opening day attraction for Epic Universe, the new Universal Orlando Resort park in May 2025.
Thanks to dxnn91 on TikTok and Youtube for sharing.